Why the US Should Suspend Military Aid to the DR

As calls for justice in the Dominican Republic increase, the United States continues to remain neutral on the issue. The US and DR have close economic ties, which many are urging the US to use as leverage to pressure the DR to end its human rights violations against people of Haitian descent. This article describes the US response thus far, how the US can leverage its influence to call for justice, and the situation people of Haitian descent are facing in DR and in Haiti after deportation.

The End of U.S. Complicity In the Dominican Republic

How Washington Should Respond to the Humanitarian Crisis

Lauren Carasik, Foreign Affairs

August 20, 2015

In the past two months, more than 60,000 Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent have fled the Dominican Republic under the threat of deportation. The exodus is in large part the consequence of a 2013 ruling by the Dominican Constitutional Court that effectively stripped some 200,000 Dominicans of Haitian descent of their citizenship, thereby creating the largest stateless population in the Western Hemisphere. Since then, thousands of ethnic Haitians have resettled on the Haitian side of the border, including the family of 28-year-old Molene Charles, which lives in a squalid settlement with 700 other families in Anse-à-Pitres. Their home in the Dominican Republic, the AP reported last week, was burned to the ground by locals.

Such grim reports contrast sharply with the initial assessments of U.S. officials. In July, during a visit to the Dominican border town of Pedernales, just two miles from Anse-à-Pitres, U.S. Ambassador James Brewster, who had posed for photos with the heads of the Dominican army, border patrol, and migration directorate, praised the Dominican security forces and denied that Santo Domingo was violating human rights. Brewster’s evaluation corresponded neatly with that of his U.S. counterpart in Haiti, U.S. Ambassador Pamela Ann White, who likewise claimed in July that there was no evidence of a humanitarian crisis in the Dominican Republic.